Frisk in Underland
by LatinDragon19
Summary: Frisk, a curious and imaginative young girl, has fallen into Underland, the underground prison for monsters that had been trapped there for so long, they all went mad. But when Frisk arrives, she gives the monsters hope. Perhaps she can save them from the human tyrant, Chara, who took over the crown after the king and queen disappeared and the prince had to go into hiding.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Long ago, two races ruled over the earth: humans and monsters. They lived together in harmony for years, but as time passed, humans grew to trust the monsters less and less. The monsters were powerful beings, and their power made the humans paranoid. Paranoia grew to distrust, and in a short amount of time thousands of years of friendships and alliances were ignored and forgotten. War erupted.

What the humans didn't realize was that while the monsters were powerful, they were also weak. The monsters didn't stand a chance against the humans, and their loss in the war was inevitable. Once the humans were victorious, they sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.

Time passed. Weeks turned to months, months turned to years, and years turned to generations. The monsters settled Underground, and they tried desperately to escape their prison. But nothing worked. The claustrophobia of the caverns became too much for the monsters, and it slowly drove each and every one of them mad. Many of them completely gave up and gave in to the madness, but others fought it and continued to try to escape.

Their lives were all completely altered when a young girl fell into their world.

Many years later:

Frisk was growing quite tired of sitting with her sister by the river bank. It was a particularly hot day, and Frisk was beginning to hate all of the skirts and the wool stockings that she had to wear. She began to miss the days when she could run around in the meadows by their house, barefoot. But of course, that was when she was much younger, and she didn't have to worry so much about being a proper young lady.

Frisk went to her older sister to see what she was reading. Her sister sighed in annoyance as Frisk peered over her shoulder to peek at the book in her hands.

"Frisk, if you would like to read, you should bring your own book."

Frisk wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I don't see how you can read that. It doesn't have any pictures."

Her sister scoffed. "My dear sister, there are a great many works of literature without pictures."

Frisk sighed and sat down next to her. "Well, in my world, all the best works of literature are nothing _but_ pictures."

" _Your_ world?"

"Yes, my world. A world where animals talk and wear clothes and live in cute little towns, the flowers talk and sing, and every day is a celebration. In my world, I can do whatever I want."

"Well, I'm sorry, Frisk, but this isn't _your_ world, it is _our_ world. The _real_ world."

Frisk folded her arms. Her sister went back to reading. "I'm bored," Frisk whined.

Her sister sighed. "What do you expect me to do about that?"

Frisk sighed, then stood and said, "I want to pick daisies."

"Alright. Then go pick daisies."

"Would you like for me to make you a crown?"

"Yes, that would be lovely," she said tiredly.

"Alright." Frisk turned and began to walk away to a nearby field that she had seen earlier. To her glee, she found that there were indeed small patches of daisies blossoming in the green. Frisk went to kneel in the grass and began to pick the biggest and prettiest ones, one by one. As she picked the daisies, she daydreamed about her world and pondered many things, like what the animal's houses would look like and what a flower with a face would look like.

Frisk was a very curious and imaginative child, which was both her strength and her weakness. While her imagination had always gotten her out of sticky situations and her curiosity would lead her to ask many questions and explore many things, the two combined had gotten her into trouble more often than not. She was beginning to be about the age when her mother and older sister started telling her to get her head out of the clouds and focus on more important things, like her studies. She found it difficult to focus on her studies, though, when it was all so boring. She read through all of the books that she was assigned, but never found any entertainment in them when they had nothing to do with magic or fairy tales and would put off reading them for as long as she could.

The only person who seemed to approve of Frisk's imaginative ways was her father. She would often go to him to describe all of her ideas and wonders, and he would listen contently, with a smile.

"My, Frisk," he had said once while patting her head, "you describe these things so vividly, perhaps you should write all of them down. You could create a story from them and be a great fantasy writer someday." Frisk tried to do that more than once, but always lacked the patience to write everything down.

As she was picking daisies, her process was interrupted when she heard a soft rustle in the grass in front of her. She looked up and saw a white rabbit with bright pink eyes nibbling at the grass. Frisk grinned and knelt even closer to the ground so that she could creep up to it and get a closer look at it. As she crawled on her hands and knees towards the rabbit, (not paying any mind to the dirt she was getting on her blue dress or white apron or striped stockings), she wasn't as quiet as she wished she could be. She made the grass rustle, and that caught the rabbit's attention. The rabbit looked up at Frisk, its tiny nose twitching. She must have looked like a stalking cat to it, because it quickly bolted away into the brush. Frisk discarded the daisies she had in her hand and stood to follow the rabbit, calling, "Wait! Mr. Rabbit! Come back, I didn't mean to frighten you!" She followed it through the brush and into the woods, running after it, until it disappeared into a hole at the base of a tree.

Frisk stopped and peered inside the hole. It was a rather large hole; much larger than any rabbit hole she'd seen before. Big enough for her to fit in, even. Frisk looked around.

"Well," she thought, "I certainly must have given that rabbit quite a fright. Wait a minute…" Frisk interrupted herself when she saw a golden glow deep inside the tunnel of the rabbit hole. "How curious…" She got on her hands and knees and proceeded to crawl inside and follow the tunnel to inspect the golden glow. The earth was cool under her hands as she ducked beneath roots that hung from the ceiling of the tunnel. She felt her way through the tunnel, eyes straining to watch the dim golden glow. She eased her way through the tunnel until it came to an abrupt end with another hole that went straight down. "Goodness," Frisk said aloud, her voice echoing faintly in the hole before her. "Why, if it weren't for that light, I would have fallen in." She leaned close to the ground and peered inside. "It must be a rather deep hole. But what could possibly be making that light?" She leaned in further and strained her eyes. Yes, the glow was definitely coming from down there, but what could be making it?

Suddenly, the ground that she was resting on gave way, and before Frisk could save herself, she fell down the hole.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Frisk finally opened her eyes and found herself laying in a bed of golden flowers. She slowly sat up and looked around to find herself in a sort of cave. She looked up, but she could only see darkness above her head. How far had she fallen? More importantly, how did she survive? Was it possible that the flowers had broken her fall? Frisk looked down and gently stroked the flower petals. They were lovely flowers, weren't they?

Frisk stood and carefully stepped out of the flower bed, trying not to crush any more than she already had. She looked around at the dark room and saw only one way to go, and that was down a dark hallway. "Well," Frisk thought, "I suppose if I'm going to find out where I am, that would be the best place to start." She walked down the hallway and it opened up into another room, where she saw another golden flower in the center, by itself. Frisk approached it, smiling. "How did you get all the way out here by yourself? Why aren't you in there with the other flowers?"

"Oh, that was easy. I'm not like the other flowers."

Frisk gasped and took a step backwards. The lonely flower had a face, and it was speaking to her.

"Oops. Sorry, did I startle you?"

"Um, no. It's just, I've never seen a talking flower before," Frisk said.

"Really? Wow, then you must be new around here." The flower laughed. "Golly, you must be really confused. Someone outta teach you how things work around here. I guess little ol' me will have to do." The flower winked at her. "Why don't we begin with a proper introduction? Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"

Frisk smiled. "Hello, Flowey. My name is Frisk."

Flowey beamed at her. "Welcome to Underland, Frisk! Come on! I want to show you something." With that, Flowey retreated down into the ground, and re-sprouted further down the room. He turned toward Frisk and used his leaf like an arm to wave her forward. "Come on! It's really cool." Frisk followed, and Flowey repeated the process to lead her down another hallway and to a large door. "Here, I'll go open it for you," Flowey said. He disappeared into the ground, and a few minutes later, the door swung open and Flowey beamed up proudly at Frisk on the other side. This new room that the door led to was lit up by a lanterns hanging from the ceiling that gave off a purple light, giving everything in the room a purple tint. The floors were tile, the walls were stone, and in the center of the room there was a small, round table.

"Over there, on the table," Flowey said. Frisk walked over to the table and saw a bottle with a tag tied to its neck that read "DRINK ME", a silver, skeleton key, and a block of cheese.

"What am I looking at?" Frisk asked.

"The bottle. It's got a really yummy drink in it. You should try it."

Frisk hesitantly picked up the bottle and pulled the cork out. "What is it?"

"It doesn't matter what it is. It's really good. Try some!"

Frisk hesitated again, and brought the bottle to her lips to take a small sip of the drink. It tasted bitter, like coffee without any cream or sugar. Frisk made a sour face. "Flowey, what…" she stopped when she noticed that she was shrinking. "Wait. What's happening?" She became so small that she had to hold the bottle with two hands, then two arms, then it was too big for her to carry and she dropped it. For a moment she was afraid that she would shrink out of existence, but was relieved when she finally stopped when she was about three inches tall. She looked to her right and saw the bottle she had dropped that was now bigger than her. It was laying on its side, spilling most of the drink onto the floor.

"Flowey, what…" she looked up and gasped. Flowey was towering over her, his face twisted into a maniacal grin.

"You idiot," he said, his lighthearted, cheery voice now replaced with a frightening growl. "In this world, it's kill or be killed. Who would ever pass up an opportunity like this?" Frisk stared up in terror as little white bullets formed in the air around him. "DIE!" he spat, and the bullets came flying towards her. Frisk tried to run out of the way, but she slipped on the spilt drink and fell. One of the bullets struck her, sending a surge of pain through her body. She screamed out in pain and fear as Flowey sent another set of bullets flying her way. She quickly scrambled to her feet and ran away. She quickly looked around for a place to hide. First she ducked behind the legs of the table, but the bullets were able to follow her there. She quickly scanned the room for a hiding spot once more, and found a mouse hole in the wall. She used all her strength to sprint to the mouse hole, jumping and ducking to avoid the bullets. She ran into the mouse hole and pressed her back against the wall, trying to catch her breath. She looked around and saw that the hole was actually well furnished and decorated with tiny pieces of furniture and things.

"Friiiiiisk. Come out, come out, wherever you are," Flowey singsonged outside the hole. Frisk sucked in a huge breath and held it, hoping he wouldn't hear her. She dared a peek to the side and saw a large shadow overcast in the doorway. She knew that Flowey must have been peeking inside to look for her. Her lungs ached, but she dared not let out her breath. After a few moments, Flowey growled. "I know you're in there. Come on out." Frisk didn't move, and she heard Flowey laugh. "Whatever. It's not like you're going to last very long out there anyway. You'll die sooner or later, and when the moment is right, I'll be right there to steal your soul. I'll be waiting…" She heard maniacal laughter outside, and then it was gone. Frisk waited, listened, but there was nothing. She let out her breath and carefully peeked outside. Nothing. He was gone. Frisk sighed with relief, but then considered her next issue. Here she was, the size of a fairy. How was she ever going to get back to the way she was before. More importantly, she still didn't know where she was, or how to go home.

A door in the mouse-sized home opened and in walked a mouse, standing on its back legs and walking upright like a human. It wore a small pink apron and held a tiny white teacup in its paw. It stepped into the room and saw Frisk. "Oh my whiskers, company! I wasn't expecting company," the mouse said.

"Um, I'm sorry," Frisk said. "I didn't mean to intrude, it's just, I was being chased and I…well…"

The mouse cocked its head, confused. "I'm sorry, but you don't look like a mouse or a frog. What exactly are you?"

Frisk was slightly taken aback by the question. "I'm a human."

"A human? My goodness, we haven't had one of those in quite a long time. And the last time I saw one, they were much too big to fit in a mouse hole. Say, I don't suppose you had any of that drink from the bottle outside, did you?"

"Yes."

"Oh my, oh dear, this _is_ a predicament. I had a friend once. He was a frog named George, he had some of that drink and it turned him ant-sized. But on the bright side, it was much easier for him to visit me after that."

"Do you know how I can make myself big again?" Frisk asked.

"Well now, I'm not sure. There was a box of cake out there somewhere that might help with that. George tried to use it to make himself grow a bit, but it didn't quite agree with him, so he decided to just stay small."

"Oh. That cake, is there any more of it?" Frisk asked.

"I'm not sure, but you can look. If it is out there, I'm sure it's on the floor. George was never too keen on cleaning up after himself. It may be a bit stale, but it should work all the same."

Frisk stepped out of the hole and the mouse followed.

"There, I see it!" the mouse said, pointing to the other end of the room were a fancy silver box was laying on the ground. "Go on, then. See if there is any left." Frisk nodded and began to walk across the room, which was actually a rather lengthy walk now that she was this size. "Be careful not to eat too much!" the mouse called after her.

Frisk reached the silver box and opened it to see small teacakes inside, adorned with frosting that spelled out the words, "EAT ME". Frisk hesitated, wondering if after her experience with the drink that this was a good idea. But then again, she was already the size of a mouse, so what more harm could be done to her if she tried a bit of the cake. The only problem was, the mouse never specified how much of the cake was too much, but Frisk decided that only one bite couldn't be too much for her. So she reached inside the box and broke off a bit of the teacake to eat. It was enough to fill her mouth. It was indeed a bit stale, but it still tasted like a nice, buttery teacake. Once Frisk swallowed, she suddenly shot up in height. She heard the mouse squeak in fright and looked down to see it scurry back into its hole, and moments later, Frisk's head hit the ceiling of the tall room.

"Ouch!" she cried out and hugged her head. But she wasn't done growing. By the time she was done, she had to lean over with her back pressed against the ceiling in order to fit in the room. She looked down and saw that the mouse had come out of its hole and was squeaking something at her, but she couldn't hear it.

"Goodness," thought Frisk. "This is much too big. Now I have to make myself small again." She looked down at the table with the spilled bottle next to it, and thought, "well, surely being the size I am now, a taste of that drink will make me go back to normal, right?" She reached down and picked up the bottle, now about the size of a dime to her. She held it carefully so she wouldn't drop it while she drank the last couple of drops in it. Surely enough, she began to shrink again, and stopped when she was closer to her original size. Frisk sighed and placed the now empty bottle on the table. She turned and saw the mouse looking up at her. She knelt down to speak with it.

"Do feel any better?" the mouse said.

"Much. Thank you."

The mouse seemed to smile up at her. "Any time. If you want to leave here, all you have to do is follow the hallways. You'll eventually come to a door that will lead you out of the Ruins." The mouse pointed at the table. "Take the key that is up there. It will unlock the door for you."

"Thank you," Frisk said with a cheery smile. It was good for her to know that in this place not all of the creatures were as wicked as that flower. Frisk stood and started to go to the table to fetch the key.

"Oh, one more thing, if I may!" the mouse called after her.

Frisk turned and looked back at the mouse. "Yes?"

"If you don't mind, there is a bit of cheese on the table as well. Would you please get it for me?"

"Of course," Frisk said. She picked up and pocketed the key, and tried to pick up the cheese only to find that it was stuck firmly to the table.

"Erm…" she said to the mouse, "I can't get it. It's stuck."

"Oh," the mouse said, disappointed. "That's what I thought. I've been trying to get that for a long time. I thought I was just too weak to get it myself, but it appears that that's not the case."

"I'm sorry," Frisk said.

The mouse shook her head. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll get it one day, as long as I'm determined enough."

Frisk smiled slightly. "Determined," she repeated. "I suppose that's what I'll have to be if I want to get home."


	3. Chapter 2

Frisk took the mouse's advice and followed the hallways until she came to a room with two staircases leading up to a second story. Frisk climbed up the stairs and entered another room. The path led to a door, but the door was closed with no knob or handle and definitely no key hole. Frisk huffed and wondered how she would get past this dead end, when she noticed a set of buttons next to the path. There were six buttons, two set on a path and the other four set on either side of the path. Nailed to the wall next to the buttons was a plague that read: "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones, both walk not the middle road."

"Hm," Frisk said to herself. "It sounds like a sort of riddle. Good, I've always loved riddles." She read the plague multiple times, then looked back at the buttons and understood. She stepped on the buttons that were not set in the path, and heard a satisfying click right before the door swung open. She felt rather proud of herself and entered the next room.

She had only crossed the threshold of the doorway, (with an extra spring in her step, overjoyed by how easily she had solved the puzzle), when she nearly ran into an odd creature. At first, Frisk thought it was a fairy because of its delicate looking wings and small body, but when she looked at it carefully, she saw that it had a body that reminded her of a ghost, antennae, and a worrisome expression.

"Eek!" the creature screamed before it flew away. Frisk blinked, bewildered, then called to it, "Wait! I didn't mean to startle you!"

"Ribbit, ribbit, (oh, don't mind them. It's just a Whimsun. They're easily scared of everything). Ribbit."

Frisk looked around until she saw a frog creature sitting on the floor and looking up at her.

Frisk stared at the frog for a moment. "Goodness, this place gets curiouser and curiouser. I'll have to adjust myself to the sight of talking animals still…"

"Ribbit, ribbit, (they have no reason to be scared of you, of course, if you are merciful)."

"Pardon?" Frisk questioned the frog.

"Ribbit, ribbit, (How merciful are you, human?)"

Frisk wondered why the frog felt the need to say "ribbit, ribbit," before all of its sentences, but she eventually decided that it was a frog, so what else would it say? "I don't really understand that question."

"Ribbit, ribbit, (then let me explain. Being a human and all down here, you may encounter fights with monsters. When you act a certain way or fight it for a while, it may not want to fight anymore. It's only common curtesy to use some mercy on the monster.)"

Frisk's brow creased in confusion. "Fight? But I don't want to fight."

"Good, because most monsters won't want to fight you either. Consider just acting instead. It might come in handy… Um, I mean, ribbit, ribbit."

"Um, I still don't really understand," Frisk admitted.

The frog sighed. "Ribbit, (come on, then, I'll show you)." With that, the frog began to hop away. Frisk hesitated, then followed it down the hall to another room, where it was waiting for her by what appeared to be a training dummy. "Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit, (come talk to this dummy, and when it doesn't want to fight anymore, use some mercy.)"

"Umm, alright then," Frisk said. She stepped up to the dummy. "Hello there, good sir. How are you doing on this fine day?" The dummy, of course, didn't reply, (although at this point she half expected it to). "It, um, doesn't seem much for conversation," Frisk said to the frog, feeling rather silly.

The frog nodded. "Now use some mercy, ribbit."

Frisk looked back at the dummy. "Alright. Um… I spare you, Sir Dummy."

The dummy didn't say anything.

The frog smiled. "Splendid! I'm proud of you, human."

"Thank you, Mr. Frog," Frisk said. As she turned back to the frog, she found it scowling at her.

The frog huffed. "I'm not a _frog_. I'm a Froggit! Why is that so hard for humans to understand?"

"Oh." Frisk blushed, though she didn't exactly know what to say to an insulted Froggit. "Um, I'm sorry, Mr. Froggit."

The Froggit groaned. "Why, that made me so angry, I might even attack you myself!"

Frisk was taken aback, (and also, slightly confused,) but the Froggit jumped towards her, and she quickly stepped to the side to dodge it. She thought for a moment, then said "You're right. You look much too interesting to be a frog."

The Froggit stopped what it was doing and blushed deeply. "I…don't know what that means…but I'm flattered anyway. Thank you."

Frisk smiled at the Froggit. "You're welcome."

Frisk left the Froggit in that room and continued down the hallway. The hallways were full of puzzles of a similar caliber to that of the first puzzle she solved. She was able to solve of them easily, and she often ran into other Froggits and Whimsuns, as well as the insecure Loox and rude Vegetoid. Every time she met a monster, she would strike up a friendly conversation and talked with them until they stepped aside and let her pass. Frisk felt rather proud of herself.

She entered another room and saw a bridge that went across a river in the floor. As Frisk approached the river, she saw what appeared to be a ghost lying down on top of the bridge with its eyes closed. As Frisk approached it, she heard it speaking.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ," it said. Frisk tilted her head in confusion and watched the ghost. Why was it saying "Z" over and over? He opened one of his eyes to peek at her, then quickly shut it again when he saw her watching him. "ZZZZZZZZZZZZ," he continued. Frisk crossed her arms in exasperation. "ZZZZZZZZZ, (are they gone yet?)"

"Excuse me," Frisk said. "Mr. Ghost, if you don't mind, I need to cross that bridge. Would you please let me pass?"

The ghost only continued to say "Z", louder this time. Frisk huffed in frustration. "Must I move you with force?" she asked.

The ghost opened its eyes and looked at her in horror. "Oh, oh no," he said softly, then began to sob.

Frisk instantly regretted what she had said. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be cross. Are you alright?"

The ghost continued to sob, leaning over the side of the bridge and letting his tears fall into the river. His tears came big and heavy.

"Oh please don't cry anymore, Mr. Ghost. I didn't mean to…" she trailed off when she noticed that the river was beginning to overflow. "Oh dear. Mr. Ghost, please stop crying. You're creating a pool of tears."

At this, the ghost began to cry even harder, and the tears almost ran out of him like a faucet. Frisk didn't even know that it was possible to for anyone to cry that much. "Please, Mr. Ghost, don't cry anymore. I really am sorry."

"Not really feelin' up to it right now," the ghost said as he continued crying. "Sorry…"

Frisk continued to try and comfort the ghost, but it was in vain. The more she tried, the harder he cried, and the more the room flooded. By the time the tears had flooded the room to the point that she was up to her ankles in tears, other monsters had come into the room to see what the commotion was.

"Oh dear," a Vegetoid said. "Looks like Napstablook is back at it again."

"Should we pick on him to make him stop?" Loox asked.

"No," Frisk said. "Honestly, if you don't want others to pick on you, you shouldn't pick on others."

Some Moldsmals sat in the corner and seemed to be conversing with each other, through a series of wiggles and shakes that Frisk couldn't understand. Froggit was trying to give Napstablook flies to appease him and make him stop crying, but that only made it worse. Migosp stood to the side, scowling and shouting "I DON'T CARE!" whenever someone tried to talk to it. The flood was beginning to get out of hand, and Frisk was up to her waist in tears.

"Please, Mr. Napstablook, crying won't do you any good."

He sniffed. "It helps me sort out my emotions and contemplate the weight of life's problems."

Frisk thought for a moment. "Um, you have very lovely eyes, Mr. Napstablook. Please stop crying so you don't ruin them."

He suddenly stopped crying and looked at Frisk. "W-What did you say?"

"I said, you have lovely eyes. It would be a shame if you cried so much that you ruined them."

"Ohh…" He sniffed, and Frisk sighed with relief. The water level was now to her chest, and she was having a hard time keeping her skirts from floating away around her. The other monsters were now swimming in the pool of tears.

"Can I show you something?" Napstablook asked.

"Of course," Frisk said.

Napstablook began to cry again, but to Frisk's amazement, the tears went up instead of down, and they gathered on his head to form the shape of a top hat. "I call it Dapperblook. Do you…like it?"

"Oh. Why, yes. It looks very dapper indeed."

"Ohhh…" Napstablook started to smile a bit. "I usually come to the Ruins because no one is here, but today I met someone nice." His smile quickly disappeared. "Oh, I'm rambling again. Sorry, I'll just go. Oooooooooo…" With that, he slowly disappeared. When he was gone, Frisk sighed and started to swim to the next room, where the other monsters were already waiting. They were all dripping wet and rather cross. Frisk herself was dripping, and she knew how angry her mother would have been to see her dress and skirts practically ruined from the salt water of the tears.

"Well," said Vegetoid. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Obviously, we have to get dry somehow," Froggit said.

"Well yes, but _how_ do we get dry?"

Everyone was silent in thought. Frisk was considering asking if there was a clothes line somewhere she could use, but that wouldn't have been any help to the animals.

"I've got it!" Vegetoid said, obviously trying to be the leader of the group.

"NO ONE CARES!" Migosp shouted, which earned a scowl from the Vegetoid.

"It doesn't matter if no one cares," Vegetoid said, "I still have an idea. Everyone should stand in a circle. Everyone did as they were told, and Vegetoid stood proudly in the center of the circle. "We shall have a race. The first one dry wins a special prize!"

Everyone agreed that that would be the best way, but when Frisk tried to ask what the rules were, she was ignored.

Rather than saying "Ready, set, go," everyone just began running whenever they felt like it, and there was no set track or path for them to follow, so they all just ran in whatever pattern they liked. Once everyone was dry, they all gathered back in their circle and asked Vegetoid who won. Vegetoid became flustered because they had forgotten who won, then they announced, "Everyone wins! Everyone gets the prize!"

"Alright, ribbit, ribbit," the Froggit said. "Then who is giving out the prize? Ribbit."

"She is, of course," Vegetoid said, motioning to Frisk. Everyone turned and looked at Frisk expectantly.

"Me?" she said. "But I have nothing to give."

"That will do," Vegetoid said.

"What?"

"I said, nothing will be fine. Give us the nothing, please."

"How am I supposed to give nothing?"

"Simple. Just hand it over."

Frisk hesitated, then reached into her pockets and pretended to hand nothing to each monster, feeling rather silly. They all seemed very pleased with the handful of nothing that she gave them. They all insisted that she keep a bit of the nothing for herself, and she pretended to be thankful. They all went their separate ways, (except Migosp, who waited for all of the other monsters to leave then grinned and danced and sang, "nothing like alone time…"). Frisk went into the next room, and saw Napstablook sitting in the room by himself, wearing his hat made of tears. He smiled faintly at Frisk when she entered the room.

"That was nice of you, giving nothing to all of those monsters. They seemed really happy."

"Oh, it was nothing," Frisk said.

"I know. That's what I just said." He looked at the floor, sadly, and said, "I wish I could have some nothing, but I didn't race."

"Um, would you like mine?" Frisk quickly offered, afraid that he would begin crying again. "I don't want it."

He looked back at her. "Really? I mean, if you insist…" Again, Frisk reached into her pocket and pretended to hand the ghost and handful of nothing. He smiled again. "Um, I suppose since you've given me nothing, I should help you leave the Ruins."

"How did you know I wanted to leave the Ruins? I've barely spoken to you."

"All of the humans who pass here want to leave the Ruins. It's just the way things go. They come, they leave, they die." This statement made Frisk nervous.

"Other humans had come through here?"

"Yep," Napstablook said.

"And none of them survived?"

"Well, no," Napstablook said. "There's the queen. She's a human."

"Oh. Then maybe I should find her. Surely she would know how to get out of here."

Napstablook's eyes widened. "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you. She's the reason no other humans have lived. No, you should try to stay away from the queen at all costs. When she hears that a human has fallen down, she has as many monsters as she can get hunt for them and bring them to her. Then, she beheads them and steals their soul."

"She…beheads them?" Frisk said nervously while finding herself slowly reaching up to touch her neck.

"It'll be okay, though. As long as you stay away from her and don't get captured, then you'll be fine. And keep being nice. If you're nice to the monsters, then they might try to help you. Like me. You were nice to me, so I'm gonna help you get out of here. Unless you want to stay of course…"

Frisk considered this for a moment, then shook her head. "My family must be wondering where I am. I need to go home."

"Alright." Napstablook turned and started to fly out of the room. "This way."

Frisk followed Napstablook through the rest of the Ruins, and he helped her solve the rest of the puzzles. They finally reached a tidy cottage and entered it. Frisk looked around the warm, welcoming house. "What is this place?" she asked. "It looks like someone's home."

"That's exactly what it is. Home. It's where the royal family used to live before the king and queen disappeared. The prince Asriel was supposed to be the new king, but there was an accident at his coronation, and then his adopted sister became queen instead. She moved out of here and went deeper into the cave, where she had another castle built and called it New Home."

"That's not a very creative name."

Napstablook shrugged, (as well as a ghost could shrug, considering he didn't really have shoulders). "She learned from the best, I suppose."

As they went down a hallway, they passed a mirror. Frisk couldn't help but stop and looked at her reflection to fix her hair a bit. It was a mess. So was her dress, but she didn't really care about that as much, but her hair was getting annoying because it was falling lose from its ribbon and falling into her face. As she fixed her hair, she noticed someone else's reflection in the mirror. Another monster, one that resembled a goat in the face, sitting in a chair and reading a book. The goat monster looked up and seemed to notice Frisk standing there looking in the mirror. Frisk turned to look behind her, but there was no one sitting in the chair. When Frisk looked back in the mirror, the goat monster was gone.

"Everything alright?" Napstablook called from the other room.

Frisk blinked at the mirror, then shook her head and went to join Napstablook. "Yes, I'm coming."

Napstablook was waiting at the top of a set of stairs that seemed to lead to a basement. "Almost there. This way." They both went down the stairs and entered a long hallway. The walked down the hallway in silence, until they finally reached a large door.

"This is the exit out of the Ruins to the rest of the Underground," Napstablook said. He looked at Frisk. "I guess this is it, huh?"

"I suppose so," Frisk said.

"Be careful," Napstablook said. "I don't have a lot of friends, and I'd be really sad if something happened to you."

Frisk smiled at the ghost. "I'll be careful. I promise."

"Thank you." They both stood in silence for a moment. "I live in Waterfall, if you ever want to visit. Or if you don't."

Frisk smiled. "That sounds nice."

"Um, be good, okay?"

"Of course," Frisk said reassuringly.

"Okay. Bye." He disappeared again, leaving Frisk by herself. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.


	4. Chapter 3

Frisk stepped through the door and was instantly greeted with an icy cold wind. She looked around at the snowy landscape and shivered, wishing that she could have been back at the riverbank where it was nice and warm. She let the door close behind her and continued along the path. As she walked, she thought she could hear someone singing a song, though she couldn't really tell where it was coming from. The sound seemed to by bouncing from tree to tree. She listened carefully and could make out the words.

 _"_ _Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail,_

 _"_ _There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail._

 _See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance,_

 _They are waiting on the shingle—will you come and join the dance?_

 _Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?_

 _Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?"_

"What an odd song," Frisk thought. "I've never heard anything like it." She continued walking until she could see a bridge up ahead with a poorly built gate. She started to cross the bridge, when she heard someone call, "Human!"

Frisk stopped in her tracks and looked around.

"Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" Frisk kept looking around, but didn't see anyone. "Up here," the voice directed. She turned and looked up to see a skeleton sitting in a tree. He was dressed peculiarly, wearing short, black trousers and a blue jacket with a hood. The skeleton looked down at Frisk from his perch on the tree branch, smiling at her with a large grin that stretched all the way across his face. Frisk almost found it unnerving, but greeted him, all the same. "Hello," she said. "My apologies, I didn't know you were up there."

The skeleton scoffed. "didn't know?" he said. "but I was singing to let you know I was here. weren't you listening?"

"I was," Frisk answered. "I couldn't tell were the voice was coming from."

The skeleton shrugged. "well, I guess I can't really do anything about that. my name is sans, by the way. sans the skeleton."

Frisk smiled. "I'm pleased to meet you, Sans. My name is Frisk."

"so," Sans said, "you're human, right?"

"Yes."

"heh. that's hilarious," Sans said with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry?"

"can you stand on your head?"

Frisk's brow furrowed in confusion. "What kind of…no, I can't. Why do you-"

"you can't? well, that's a shame. what are you doing out here, anyway?"

"Oh. Well, you see, I'm trying to find my way home," Frisk said.

"ha. _your_ way? that's a laugh. the only way down here is the queen's way."

"Oh," Frisk said nervously. Perhaps she needed to stay away from this monster, if he knew the queen.

"you know, it's funny. my brother and I are actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but ya know, neither of us really wanna capture anybody."

Frisk was relieved to hear this much. "Then perhaps you can direct me someplace where I can find my—uh—where I can go home?"

Sans seemed to ponder this for a moment and lay down on his stomach on the branch and he let his arms and legs dangle lazily beneath him. "I can't tell ya. I mean, you could go left, right, north, south, east, west, north-east, south-east, north-south, up, down, diagonal, zig-zag," he stopped to breathe and shrug, "but who has the time for all that? now, if I were you, which I'm not…" Sans stopped and brought his hand to his chin, as if in thought. "or am I? if I were you, then I suppose the only one to know would be you, wouldn't it? unless you were me. but then how would I know? would I be aware of you being me and me being you? or would you be aware? what if neither of us were aware? then I could be you and you could be me, and neither of us would know."

He continued on like this, and Frisk was beginning to get exasperated. "This has nothing to do with anything!" she finally snapped.

Sans shook his head. "tsk, tsk, you shouldn't interrupt. that's a very very rude thing. what was I talking about again?"

"You were trying to give me advice on how to get home."

"oh yes. well, if I were you, which I'm not for all we know, then I would go see my brother, papyrus. he knows underland well, so he could probably tell you."

"Oh. Well, can you take me to him?"

"I suppose. I must warn you, though, he's as mad as a hatter."

"What?" Frisk said.

"you heard me."

Frisk groaned. "But I don't want to go among mad people."

"oh, you can't help that," Sans said. His smile seemed to grow wider, which Frisk did find unnerving. "we're all mad here, including you and me."

"How do you know I'm mad?" Frisk said while crossing her arms.

"you have to be, otherwise you wouldn't have come down here."

Frisk didn't think that that proved anything, but didn't argue any further. "Can you just take me to your brother?"

"of course." Frisk watched as Sans slowly vanished from the tree, until only an imprint of his smile was left floating in the air. "come on, then." Frisk squealed, startled, and turned to see that Sans was now next to her, offering his hand. She gladly took it, and as she squeezed it, a fart sound broke the silence. Sans erupted into mad, cackling laughter, and Frisk let go of his hand, blushing and wondering if following this skeleton was such a good idea. "Then again," she thought, "I don't have anyone else to escort me. I wonder if he was right in that everyone down here is mad? That would certainly explain a lot."

They trudged through the snow together, and Sans continued his song from before.

 _"_ _You can really have no notion how delightful it will be_

 _When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!"_

 _But the snail replied, "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance-_

 _Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance._

 _Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance._

 _Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance._

"That's a peculiar song," Frisk stated.

"It's popular in waterfall," Sans replied. "come on, can't you walk any faster? It's not that far," he then said, ironically.

They walked and walked through the ice and snow, until they reached a clearing with a large table set up with many seats, tea sets, plates and silverware, and three monsters sat at the table: a blue, bipedal rabbit wearing a yellow shirt and red suspenders, holding an ice cream cone in his hand despite the cold weather, a spider woman wearing a frilly dress and daintily eating a donut, and a tall skeleton wearing a patchwork jacket and a top hat, eating from a plate of spaghetti. Frisk assumed that the skeleton was Sans's brother, Papyrus.

Papyrus looked up from his plate of spaghetti and saw Sans and Frisk approaching. "BROTHER!" he cried suddenly, causing the other two monsters to jump. Papyrus stood on his chair, his eyes twinkling and his also unnervingly large smile agape, then stepped onto the table and walked down it, kicking over teapots and cups and such without a care. When he reached the end of the table, he hopped off and ran to them, sweeping Sans up in a tight hug.

"OH, BROTHER, I'M SO GLAD YOU COULD MAKE IT! I WAS AFRAID FOR A WHILE YOU WOULDN'T COME."

Sans chuckled. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY, BY THE WAY."

Sans grinned. "aww, you remembered?"

"OF COURSE I DID."

Sans hugged Papyrus back. "thanks, bro."

Papyrus put Sans down, then looked at Frisk. "WHO IS YOUR FRIEND?"

"this is frisk, a human," Sans said, eyeing Papyrus.

Papyrus's eyes widened a bit. "A HUMAN! FANTASTIC!" He scooped Frisk up in his arms and squeezed her so tight she could barely breathe. "WELCOME HUMAN! IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU. TELL ME, IS IT YOUR UNBIRTHDAY AS WELL?"

Frisk tried to squirm out of Papyrus's grasp and gasped for air. Sans laughed. "bro, I don't think she can handle your _bone-crushing_ hugs."

Papyrus scowled at his brother and dropped Frisk on the ground with a thud so that he could put his hands on his hips. "SANS, PLEASE, ENOUGH OF YOUR TIRELESS HUMOR!"

Frisk stood, hugging her ribs and gasping for air. "It…it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Papyrus," she wheezed.

Papyrus put his hand on her shoulder and started to lead her to the table. "COME, HUMAN, JOIN US FOR TEA. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THE OTHER GUESTS." He pointed to the blue rabbit with the ice cream. "THIS IS STEVEN."

"Actually," the rabbit said, "my name is— "

"AND THIS," Papyrus continued while pointing at the spider woman, "IS MUFFET."

Muffet eyed Frisk suspiciously. "Hello, human," she said with words that dripped with venom.

"AND THIS," Papyrus said while pointing to a little white dog that was sleeping on the table that Frisk hadn't noticed before, "IS FRANCESCO."

"francesco?" Sans said while taking a seat at the table. "I thought we named him elvis."

"NO, ELVIS IS THE NAME OF YOUR PET ROCK."

"I don't have a pet rock," Sans said. "brother, you must be going mad." At this, everyone at the table howled in laughter, (except for Frisk and the sleeping dog).

"Well," Muffet said after the laughter died down, " _I_ recall Papyrus naming the dog Francesco."

"I thought we named him Toby," the rabbit said.

"TOBY?!" Papyrus cried, making Frisk jump. "DON'T BE SILLY, STEVEN, TOBY IS A TERRIBLE NAME FOR A DOG. OBVIOUSLY HIS NAME IS FRANCESCO." He turned to Frisk. "HUMAN, WHAT DO YOU THINK?"

"Well, I think Toby is a nice name for a dog," Frisk said.

Sans shook his head. "I told you you're mad, frisk."

Papyrus picked up a teapot. "HUMAN, WOULD YOU LIKE SOME TEA?"

"Yes please." Frisk watched as Papyrus was about to pour some tea in the delicate little teacup before her. "I hope I'm not intruding on your birthday party," she added.

"OH NO, NO, NO!" Papyrus said, putting the teapot down before he even poured Frisk any. "THIS ISN'T A BIRTHDAY PARTY, IT'S AN _UN_ BIRTHDAY PARTY."

Frisk's brow furrowed. "An unbirthday? What's that?"

Papyrus gasped. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT AN UNBIRTHDAY IS?"

Muffet crossed her six arms and huffed. "Goodness, humans are so dull."

"I'll explain," Sans said. "you see, frisk, you've got three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, right?" Frisk nodded. "and of those days, you only have one birthday, which leaves you with three hundred and sixty-four _un_ birthdays."

"Really?" Frisk said.

"OF COURSE, HUMAN!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"How else are you going to celebrate every day you're alive?" the rabbit said.

"leap year is the best," Sans continued. "because then you have an extra unbirthday."

"So then," Frisk started, "does that mean that all of you are celebrating your unbirthday today?" Everyone at the table nodded, (except for the sleeping dog, who was actually celebrating his birthday that day). "Then that means it's my unbirthday too?"

"IT IS?" Papyrus said excitedly.

"heh," Sans said. "small world."

"IN THAT CASE, WE SHOULD SING A SONG! SANS, GET OUT YOUR TROMBONE!" Sans reached under the table and pulled out a trombone and brought it to his mouth. Before Frisk could decipher how a skeleton could play a wind instrument, Papyrus stood in his chair again and raised his arms as if he were conducting an orchestra. "ALL TOGETHER EVERYONE!" He opened his mouth and began to sing "OHHH…" to give everyone pitch, and they began to sing while Sans played the same two notes over and over on the trombone.

 _Twinkle, twinkle little bat_

 _How I wonder what you're at_

 _Up above the world so high_

 _Like a tea tray in the sky_

 _Twinkle, twinkle little bat_

 _How I wonder what you're at_

Frisk clapped politely when they finished. "That was lovely."

"WHY, THANK YOU, HUMAN."

"Have you heard that song before?" the rabbit asked.

"Um, something like it," Frisk said.

"Would you like a donut, human?" Muffet asked her.

Frisk was about to say yes, but then she looked down at the donut that Muffet was offering her and saw that it was covered with tiny spiders instead of sprinkles. "No thank you. I'm not very hungry."

Muffet scowled at her, then took a bite out of the donut. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Oh, I'm sure there isn't," Frisk said quickly. "It looks delicious, but I couldn't possibly eat anything."

"I told you, Muffet, no one likes spiders," the rabbit said. He stood and leaned across the table and tried to hand Frisk an ice cream cone. "Here, have a Nice Cream. It's the frozen treat that warms your heart."

Frisk examined the Nice Cream, and though it did look much more appetizing than Muffet's spider donut, the air was still too cold to appreciate it, and Muffet was giving her a nasty look. "No thank you. I'm not hungry."

Papyrus peered into Frisk's teacup. "EMPTY CUP!" he called out, before picking her up.

"But you never gave me any-" Everyone else stood and moved down a few seats then sat back down again, and Papyrus sat her down in a new seat. Before Frisk could ask anything about it, Papyrus was offering her some more tea, and this time he actually poured some into her cup.

"TEA, MUFFET?"

"No, I'll have cider instead, thank you," she said as she pulled a large jug out from under the table.

"BROTHER?"

"half a cup, if you don't mind." Papyrus then took a teacup and beat it against the side of the table to break it in half, and Frisk watched in amazement as the tea filled the broken cup without leaking out of it. He handed the broken cup to Sans and he took a sip.

"hm. what kind of tea is this?"

"GOLDEN FLOWER TEA."

"Blatantly the correct choice," the rabbit added.

"OH, THAT REMINDS ME. HUMAN, HAVE YOU MET UNDYNE? SHE IS QUITE A LOT OF FUN. I THINK YOU WOULD BE GOOD FRIENDS."

Sans shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea, pap."

"WHY NOT, SANS?"

"because, undyne's opinion of humans is pretty…" Sans trailed off to think of the correct term.

"MURDERY?" Papyrus offered.

Sans snapped his fingers. "exactly."

"AH, YES, I QUITE FORGOT. THEN PERHAPS YOU SHOULDN'T MEET UNDYNE, HUMAN."

"Who is Undyne?" Frisk asked.

"She's the head of the Royal Guard," the rabbit explained.

"And a particular favorite of the queen," Muffet added while sprinkling spiders in her cup of cider like sugar.

"NEVER FEAR, HUMAN. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL PROTECT YOU FROM THE QUEEN."

"Well, thank you," Frisk said, though she wasn't sure how comfortable she was with these mad people protecting her. She figured, though, that it was better than nothing.

"YOU'RE QUITE WELCOME, HUMAN." Papyrus suddenly gasped and slammed his hands down on the table and stared at her with a very serious expression. "HUMAN, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHY A RAVEN IS LIKE A WRITING DESK?"

Before Frisk could respond, another monster came rushing past, panting and quite red in the face.

"OH, HELLO, ALPHYS," Papyrus said. The monster stopped in her tracks, and Frisk could get a good look at her. She was a short monster that resembled a reptile with yellow scales, wearing a strange white coat that reached the ground. She stood with a bit of a slouch and clutched her clawed hands to her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

"I-I can't st-stay for tea this time, Papyrus," she quickly said. "I'm late." She reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a pocket watch. "Oh, oh no. I'm even more late now. I'm later!"

Sans stood and walked over to Alphys and took the watch from her hand to look at it. "huh. no wonder you're late. this watch is at least two days slow."

"W-What? Two days slow?"

"you should try butter. that helps with slow watches," Sans said while handing the watch back to her.

"BUTTER?! SANS, DON'T BE RIDICULOUS. THAT'S FOR FAST WATCHES. JAM HELPS WITH SLOW WATCHES."

"Please, I d-d-don't have time for this. I need to go now or I'll lose my head!"

"too late," Sans said with a snort. Everyone at the table burst into laughter again, (except of course for Frisk and the dog).

"BUT ALPHYS, YOU MUST MEET OUR NEW FRIEND, THE HUMAN!"

Alphys' eyes widened. "A human?" She looked around at the table until her eyes fell on Frisk. "W-What is she doing here? Why aren't you hiding her?"

"WE'RE HAVING A PARTY."

"No," Alphys said in an urgent whisper. "You don't understand. Undyne was coming this way. I was going to meet her."

Everyone suddenly went stiff, (even the dog).

"UNDYNE IS COMING HERE?" Papyrus asked.

"Yes, and if she s-s-sees you and Sans with a human…"

Sans put his hands up. "don't worry, alphys. we've got things under control."

"Really? It doesn't look like it."

He shrugged. "sure. we can just take her to snowdin. it'll be easy to hide her there."

"But you don't understand, sh-she's…"

"Alphys!" a loud voice barked from the woods. Alphys flinched.

"Oh dear," Muffet said. "It seems we've reached a predicament. Ahuhuhu."

The rabbit looked at Papyrus and Sans urgently. "What do we do?"

Papyrus paused in thought, then snapped his fingers. "DRINK!"

"We don't have time for tea, Papyrus!" Alphys shouted.

"Not tea," Papyrus whispered. "The drink. Does anyone have any?"

Alphys suddenly realized what he was talking about and began to search her pockets. "All I have is cake."

The others searched their pockets as well, and none of them had any of the drink that Papyrus was talking about.

"WELL, THAT'S ODD," he said. "WE HAD SOME, DIDN'T WE?"

"did elvis look, bro?"

"YOU MEAN FRANCESCO? NO, OF COURSE HE DIDN'T. HE'S ASLEEP."

"And I don't think he has pockets," the rabbit added.

Papyrus quickly jumped onto the table and ran to the dog, knocking over several more teapots and cups, and making the table shake violently. He then used the toe of his boot to kick the dog over onto its other side, to reveal that it had been sleeping on top of a small bottle the whole time. Papyrus scoffed. "YOU RASCAL!" He picked up the bottle and ran to the end of the table Frisk was sitting at and jumped down to hand her the bottle. "TAKE A SWIG OF THIS, WON'T YOU?"

Frisk looked at the bottle, and remembered what Flowey did. "I don't think I want to."

"Alphys!" the loud voice barked again. "Ugh, I can't ever find my way through these woods. And it's so cold here. Alphys, where are you?"

"We don't have time to argue," Alphys sad urgently. "Please, just do what he says or we'll all…" Alphys trailed off as if she didn't want to finish the thought.

"basically, we'll all have a bad time," Sans said for her. "it won't hurt, kid. just drink it."

Frisk still didn't know whether to trust them, but she found the booming, angry voice that was slowly approaching them much more intimidating, so she took the bottle and pulled the cork from it to take a swallow of the drink. She immediately recognized the bitter taste, but it was too late to turn back as she was already shrinking. Once she was about three inches tall, she stopped and standing on the pink cushion of her chair. Papyrus quickly picked her up in his fist, suffocating her. "BROTHER, WOULD YOU PASS ME THAT TEAPOT PLEASE?"

"the blue one? it's empty, bro."

"EXACTLY. HAND IT OVER."

Sans handed Papyrus the empty teapot and Papyrus took the lid from it and dropped Frisk inside. "NOW STAY IN HERE AND TRY TO STAY QUIET," he said before closing the lid.

Frisk looked around at the ceramic inside of the teapot. It was rather dark in there, save for the light coming in through the opening of the spout. "Well," she thought, "this is certainly a strange situation."

"There you are, Alphys!" Frisk heard the barking voice from before outside of the teapot. "You're late! Come on, we have to get to Waterfall!"

"I-I know Undyne. I had t-t-to catch my breath."

"HELLO UNDYNE! NICE TO SEE YOU OUT AND ABOUT."

"Papyrus, why aren't you and Sans at your sentry points?"

"WE'RE CELEBRATING OUR UNBIRTHDAYS."

Frisk stood and found that she was tall enough to touch the lid of the teapot, so she pushed it open a bit and stood on her tip-toes so that she could peek outside. Sans was sitting next to where her teapot was, the dog was still asleep, Muffet and the rabbit were tending to their own business, both looking a bit nervous. Papyrus was talking with another monster who looked like a fish woman with long, red hair. She wore a big, clunking suit of armor that was freshly-polished. Frisk assumed that that was Undyne.

Undyne scowled at Papyrus. "Unbirthdays? Papyrus, you know I can't let you be in the Royal Guard if you can't be serious."

"I _AM_ BEING SERIOUS, UNDYNE!"

"hey bro," Sans interrupted. "isn't today undyne's unbirthday too?"

Papyrus's eyes lit up. "IT IS? IN THAT CASE, WE SHALL SING A SONG IN UNDYNE'S HONOR! SANS, THE TROMBONE!" Sans took out his trombone and Papyrus turned to the others sitting at the table. "ALL TOGETHER, EVERYONE! OHHHHHHH…"

Undyne stepped between Sans and Papyrus. With one hand, shoe covered Papyrus's mouth, and with the other, she snatched the trombone out of Sans's hands. Papyrus blinked at Undyne in confusion, and Sans huffed and crossed his arms. "how rude," he muttered.

"I will not partake in any of your madness," Undyne said.

Papyrus pouted and removed her hand from his mouth. "BUT UNDYNE, YOU KNOW YOU'RE AS MAD AS WE ARE."

"I am not," Undyne snapped. "I'm perfectly fine, and you need to be too if you know what's good for you."

"YOU USED TO BE MORE FUN," Papyrus whined, "BUT THEN YOU BECAME THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND NOW YOU'RE NO FUN ANYMORE."

Undyne rolled her eyes. "I'm warning you, if you keep avoiding your work, the queen will have you lose your heads."

"sorry," Sans said. "we've already lost them."

At this, Papyrus roared in laughter, but the other two monsters sitting at the table only chuckled uneasily. Frisk craned her head up to look at Sans as he grinned cheerfully at the scowling Undyne. Sans glanced down at the teapot Frisk was in, and then noticed that Undyne was looking at her teapot as well. Frisk gasped and quickly closed the lid with a tiny _clink_ , but it was too late.

"What was that?" Undyne asked.

"what was what?"

"The teapot, there. I think something is inside it."

Sans quickly snatched up the teapot, which made Frisk fall over inside it. "it's probably just a mouse. don't you hate it when you get mice in your tea?" He lifted the lid a bit to peek in at Frisk, then closed it again. "yep, just a mouse."

"Why do you have mice in your tea?" Undyne demanded. "That's unsanitary!"

"OH, BUT MICE MAKE WONDERFUL COMPANY!" Papyrus said.

Undyne shivered. "Whatever. Come on, Alphys, let's go. I've had enough of these loonies, and it's freezing here."

"O-okay, Undyne."

"And you two," Frisk assumed Undyne was directing to the skeleton brothers. "Don't slack off on your work anymore. I mean it!"

"don't worry, _bass_ , paps and I will put more _backbone_ into our work." Sans chuckled at his own joke, while Papyrus groaned.

A few moments later, Papyrus lifted the lid from the teapot and turned it upside down so Frisk would fall out of it and land on her head on the table. "IT'S ALRIGHT NOW, HUMAN. UNDYNE IS GONE." Frisk sat up and rubbed her head.

"alphys had a point," Sans said to his brother. "pretty soon, all kinds of monsters are going to come looking for this kid. we need to hide them."

"AGREED," Papyrus said. "BUT FIRST, I THINK WE NEED TO MAKE HER BIG AGAIN. UNDERLAND IS QUITE DANGEROUS FOR SOMEONE THIS SIZE."

"do we really have to? it'd make hiding her a lot easier."

"Actually," Frisk called up to them, "I don't like being this small. I would like to be bigger."

"THERE YOU HAVE IT, THEN, BROTHER. TAKE HER BACK TO OUR HOUSE IN SNOWDIN AND HAVE HER REGROWN!"

"c'mon, bro, why do I have to do it?"

"WOULD YOU RATHER STAY HERE AND CLEAN UP AFTER THE PARTY?" Sans seemed to consider it for a moment, then shook his head. "THEN GET TO IT."

"alright, alright," he said before he picked Frisk up in his fist and placed her on his shoulder. "don't worry, kid, this won't take long. I know a shortcut."

A/N: The song that Sans sang is a poem from C.S. Lewis's Alice in Wonderland. I do not own it!  
I also wanted to make a quick explanation here. For the sake of the plot, this fanfiction will have (spoiler alert) Flowey and Asriel be two different characters, instead of the same person. I'm sorry, I tried to find a way around it, but it just won't work. Thanks for all of your feedback, by the way. You guys just don't realize how much better it makes my day when someone leaves a review about my story. You guys are the best!


	5. Chapter 4

Frisk blinked in confusion as she looked around and saw that she and Sans were in front of a sign that read "Welcome to Snowdin" in bright red letters, and beyond the sign was a cheery little town with cute little houses. She could have sworn that it wasn't there before, and she took a moment to look behind her and see that the clearing with Papyrus's tea party was gone.

"fast shortcut, huh?" Sans said with a wink.

"How did you do that?" Frisk asked.

"I told you, it was a shortcut. now c'mon, let's get to my house." Sans shoved his hands in his pockets and walked through the town, humming softly. Frisk looked around, amazed, at all of the snow covered houses and the tree decorated with strings of lights and colorful packages underneath it. But what really struck her as shocking was that lining the streets and going about their business were many clothed, bipedal animals. They all greeted Sans warmly and he waved back at them, always donning his big smile.

"Sans, should I be worried about hiding?" Frisk whispered to him.

"nah," he said. "you're so small no one would pay any mind to you."

"Hey Sansy," a bear creature called to the skeleton before walking up to him. "Did you get a new pet or somethin'?"

"what are you talking about, bill?" Sans asked the bear.

"That thing on your shoulder. It looks like a human." The bear leaned forward and squinted suspiciously at Frisk. "A lot like a human, actually."

Sans scoffed. "what, this thing? bill, you've lost it. it's obviously a mouse."

The bear looked confused. "Are you sure?"

"yeah. have you ever seen a human that small? no. but you know what is that small? a mouse."

The bear squinted at Frisk again then nodded. "Yeah. Now that I look at it, it doesn't really look like a human at all."

Sans nodded. "so what are you up to, huh?"

The bear named Bill turned and looked back at the colorfully decorated tree planted in the middle of the town. "Oh, you know. Same as always. Those teenagers are still pranking that deer-thing, and we're still trying to give him presents to make him feel better and he still yells at us. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to that."

"okay. have fun, bill," Sans said and waved as the bear walked off. "see kid? you're fine."

Frisk didn't know whether to be grateful or appalled. "Is everyone in this town that dim-witted?"

"no, just stupid," Sans said. "a little sun is all they really need. maybe some fresh air. some time outside. that'd clear their heads."

"But, they _are_ outside," Frisk argued.

"no, they're inside. not outside."

"But that doesn't make any sense." Frisk huffed. "I'm getting awfully tired of all you mad people."

"look up, kid. we're not outside. we're inside."

Frisk looked up and noticed for the first time that there was indeed a dark ceiling far above their heads. She hadn't noticed it since she left the ruins. "Oh. I forgot," she muttered.

"see? I told you you're mad," Sans said.

"I am not!" Frisk shouted angrily, but Sans only laughed.

Sans brought her to a house at the far end of Snowdin without any other incident. When they got there, Sans picked Frisk up in his fist then set her down again on a table. "alright, kiddo, let's see if I can find any of that cake stuff for you. unless you changed your mind about being small?"

Frisk shook her head. "No, I want to be big again, please."

"so polite," Sans said. "okay, I'll be back." he walked away into another room. Frisk took a moment to look around at the house. There were strange smells in the air, something herbal like tea but also musty like sweaty clothes. Overall, the house was neat except for a lone sock laying in the floor with many notes attached to it. She stood on the table and waited for a long time for Sans to come back, but he didn't. Frisk got a little impatient and started pacing the table nervously. Maybe she should go look for him? Maybe she should go find the cake herself? "No, don't be ridiculous," she said aloud to herself. "It's just taking him a long time. Besides, how am I supposed to get down from the top of this table?" She walked to the edge and peered down at the floor. At her normal height the table probably would have reached her waist, but at her current height the drop was dizzying. She backed away from the edge and bumped into a box that had been sitting on top of the table then turned to look at it. She blinked as she read the words "CAKE" labeled on the side of the box. "What?" she exclaimed. "How long has that been there? Why didn't Sans notice it there? More importantly, why didn't _I_ notice it there?" She paused as she caught herself. "Great, now I'm talking to myself. Maybe this place _is_ driving me mad." She huffed and refused to believe it then went to open up the cardboard box to look inside. Sure enough, there were a bunch of little teacakes with the words "EAT ME" written on them in icing. Frisk reached inside the box and broke off a piece of the teacake and took a bite, hoping that she hadn't eaten too much that time. Unfortunately, within a few seconds she started to grow incredibly fast. Too fast. Before she could comprehend what was happening she had become too big for the house. Her arms and legs burst out of the sides of the house and her head went through the second floor. She was able to turn her head a bit and peak out of a window just in time to see the bear from before staring up at her.

"Help! Monster!" he screamed while running away.

"A monster? He's one to talk," she thought. She tried in vain to move—to maybe stand up or pull the house off of her—but the house was planted firmly to the snow covered ground and she couldn't move. The fearful thought that she could have squished Sans crossed her mind, as well as the fact that she has certainly drawn attention to herself, and her head was pressed up against the ceiling in a way that she had to tilt it and it was starting to make her neck cramp. "Oh, what am I going to do?" she thought. It wasn't long until Frisk heard a familiar, booming voice heading her way.

"Slow down, Bill, what's the problem?" Undyne said.

"I told you! There's a monster in Sans and Papyrus's house!"

"A-Aren't Sans and Papyrus both monsters?" the timid Alphys offered, obviously trying to lead Undyne away from the house.

"Yes, but this one is a bad one!" Bill insisted. "You have to get rid of it before it terrorizes the town!" Frisk peered outside and saw the three of them heading down the road towards them, and she tried again to pull the house off of her, or at least stand up so she could run away. Just as Undyne turned the corner and saw Frisk her eyes popped open wide, then she blinked in disbelief.

"Woah!" she said. "That _is_ a monster!" Frisk could see Alphys put her face into her palm, and Undyne suddenly became extremely giddy like a child who had just walked into a candy store. "What is that thing? I've never seen anything like it before."

"I don't know," Alphys said. "Maybe Sans got another pet. Look, Undyne, it's not hurting anyone. We need to go, we're already late," she added while nervously checking her watch.

"Nah, the queen will understand if we're a little late. It's just croquet. Besides, what if it's a human?!"

"Ah! N-no, I d-d-don't think it's a human. Human's don't get that big."

"You sure? In one of those books you showed me—"

"Never mind that," Bill said. "How are you going to get it out?"

Undyne gazed up at the house. "You know, that's a good question. What I think we need is a…" she looked around and Frisk sat helplessly and watched. "Hm, well, the doors and windows are blocked, so I guess we could try the chimney. It's pretty small, though."

"That's right! There's no way to get in!" Alphys interjected. "So I guess we can't…um…do anything? We should just…go?" Frisk noticed that Alphys seemed to get a little nervous whenever Undyne looked at her. Was it out of fear, or something else?

"I'm not gonna give up that easily! If I can't get in through the chimney to get it then what I need is a…a…" Again, Undyne looked around, until a monster that looked something like a squid with two big eyes and big lips came slinking down the road. Frisk heard him grumble, "the wi-fi hear sucks," and she didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

"Jerry!" Undyne exclaimed. He jumped a bit and looked at her with little interest. "Come here! I need you for something!" He slowly made his way over to the group, and Frisk swore she could see Bill shudder.

"Yeah?" he looked down at a peculiar device, (which Frisk didn't know was a cell phone).

"I need you to get a ladder and climb down the chimney of this house. Bill, do you have a ladder?"

"Yeah, we use it to decorate the tree," he said.

"Great! Go get it."

Bill left and Alphys tried again, "Undyne, I'm not sure this is a g-good idea. What's…what's Jerry going to do when he gets down the chimney?"

"Oh, I have a feeling Jerry will know exactly what to do once he goes down the chimney, won't you, Jerry?" Undyne said while beaming down at the monster, (then secretly grimacing when he started to noisily like cheese powder off of his fingers).

"Sure," he said, still uninterested.

Bill came running back with a ladder and handed it to Undyne, and she leaned it against the house. "Alright, Jerry, climb up here and go down the chimney," she commanded.

"Okay," he said as he started to climb up the ladder while still looking at his phone.

"Once you get down there, I want you to grab the monster by the neck and yank it back up."

"Undyne, I…don't think that's going to work," Alphys tried, but Undyne ignored her.

"Try not to lower its HP too much. I want to fight the monster once you bring it back up!" she called up to him.

"Sure, I can—wait…" Jerry finally looked up from his phone and through the window where Frisk was staring back at him. "Monster?!" He screamed and raced back down the ladder and tried to run away, but Undyne caught him and picked him up off the ground and he trembled and hid his face in his arms.

"Jerry, buddy, you don't understand what's happening here. I'm asking you to do us a huge—and I mean HUGE—favor. If you chicken out, you're passing up a golden opportunity."

He peeked up at Undyne from over his arms. "I am?"

"Yeah," Undyne continued as she made her way to the ladder. "If you did this, it'd be so great people would love you. You can be famous."

"I can?" She nodded. "Wow," he breathed. "Do you think people would stop ditching me all the time?"

"Umm…sure. Yeah, why not?" Undyne said uneasily.

"That'd be really cool."

"It sure would, Jerry," she said as she stepped onto the roof. "Now, don't forget what I said."

"Uh, wait, I have to think about this," he tried, but it was too late. Undyne was already bringing him to the chimney. He scrambled in an attempt to get out of her grasp, but with one strong arm she shoved Jerry down the chimney, all while encouraging him. He was shoved down the chimney with such force that it sent a lot of soot into the room in a cloud, and when Frisk breathed it in it burned her throat and tickled her nose. Her eyes started to water and she felt a sneeze coming on. She tried to suppress it, but all at once there came a mighty _"Achoo!"_ that shook the house and shot Jerry out of the chimney like a bullet from a gun and he flew into the sky, (as much of a sky as they had), and out of sight.

They all craned their necks up to watch as Jerry flew away.

"Well, there goes Jerry," Undyne said flatly.

"Poor Jerry," Alphys also said flatly. That was the only pity that was shown for Jerry, (Bill secretly celebrated his disappearance).

"GRAECIOUS!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Frisk looked and saw Papyrus approaching the house now. "WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HOUSE?"

"You've got a bit of an infestation in here, Papyrus," Undyne called as she jumped down from the roof of the house.

"But!" Alphys started. "Um…but, now P-Papyrus is here. He can take care of it himself." She looked at him, seriously. "Right?"

"OF COURSE I CAN, ALPHYS. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN DO ANYTHING!"

"Pssh. This bozo? No, he'd probably try to keep it for a pet and name Francis or something."

"HER NAME ISN'T FRANCIS! IT'S FRISK!"

Undyne sighed. "See? He's already named it. I'd better do him a favor and get rid of it now. And where's Sans?"

"OH, YOU KNOW HIM. THAT LAZY BROTHER OF MINE IS PROBABLY SLEEPING SOMEWHERE."

Frisk once again feared that she might have squished him when she grew, and hoped that she hadn't.

Undyne crossed her arms in thought. "Dang, I bet your kitchen's destroyed. We probably won't be able to cook anymore." She suddenly snapped her fingers and grinned really wide. "I've got it! We'll burn the house down!"

"What?!" Alphys shrieked.

"UH, UNDYNE, ISN'T THAT A BIT EXTREME?" Papyrus questioned while crossing his arms.

"Nah, I've burned mine down plenty of times. It's no big deal."

"Undyne! We can't just burn down Sans and Papyrus's house, where are they going to live?" Alphys was in a panic now. There was no stopping Undyne this time.

"We'll just build them a new house," Undyne said. "That won't take long."

"I'm with her," Bill said. "What do you need, Undyne?"

"Matches, kindling, anything that'll catch. We've got to do this quickly."

Frisk began to panic as well. "Oh no, what am I going to do?" she thought. She quickly looked around for something, anything, to help get her out of this situation. She looked out of one of the windows and saw Sans standing behind the house looking up at her in amusement.

"Sans!" she exclaimed, and he put his finger over his mouth to tell her to be quiet. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a hamburger and pointed to it before holding it up over his head. She understood, and tried to take the burger between two of her fingers as discreetly as she could—though Undyne was at this point too excited about starting a fire to notice—and with some struggle was able to pull her arm back inside the house and pop the burger into her mouth. She immediately started to shrink again. She could hear everyone outside shriek in surprise and she shrank back to the height she just was, but this time she was glad; it was better for hiding. As soon as she could get on her feet she sprinted for the kitchen and hid behind what was left of the kitchen doorframe. Undyne soon ran into the house with Papyrus and Alphys following close behind.

"Ha! I knew it! The monster was so scared of me it ran away! Come out and fight, you coward!" She picked up the table and threw it, shattering the only window that wasn't already shattered.

Sans nonchalantly stepped through the door and joined the party. "sup bro?" he said.

"SANS!" Papyrus exclaimed. "WHERE WERE YOU?"

"I was at grillby's."

Undyne scoffed. "Of course you were. You just missed me scaring away a huge monster!"

"aren't we all monsters?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's beside the point. The point is—"

"The _point is_ ," Alphys interrupted, "that we're late and if we don't hurry we're going to be even more late."

"Relax, Alphys, we just have to tell the queen we had to fight a giant. Not only will she excuse us, she's gonna be impressed!"

"I don't know about that." Alphys glanced away uneasily.

"Don't worry about it. Here, how's about I carry you on my back? We'll move really fast then!"

"W-what?! U-Undyne!" Frisk peeked around the corner in time to see Undyne throw Alphys over her shoulder like a sack of flour. Alphys' face was glowing like a red Christmas light.

"Alright guys, we have to go. Call me if that giant comes back!" she called as she took off running out of the house and down the road.

"sure thing, bass," Sans said, but by then Undyne and Alphys were already too far away for them to hear him.

Papyrus looked around until he found Frisk and knelt down in front of her. "THAT WAS A VERY SCARY THING YOU DID, HUMAN."

"I didn't do it one purpose!" Frisk yelled angrily. "People tell me not to eat too much cake but they don't tell me how much _is_ too much!"

"a nibble is all it takes, pal," Sans said. "If you just want to be your normal height then sometimes even a lick is enough to do the trick." He paused. "did I just rhyme?"

"NOT QUITE."

"Well then let me have some more of that cake so I can try to grow again."

Sans shook his head. "no can do, kiddo. you squished the cakes beyond eating. we're just gonna have to take you somewhere else."

Papyrus held out his gloved hand to Frisk. "UNTIL THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL CARRY YOU. WE WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO GET STEPPED ON, WOULD WE?" Frisk stepped up onto Papyrus's hand and nearly fell when he lifted her up over his head. "STEP ONTO THE BRIM OF MY HAT, HUMAN. YOU'LL HAVE A PLEASANT RIDE UP THERE." Frisk did so and sat down on the edge of the brim, taking a moment to run her hand over the silk fabric of it. It was a funny-looking hat, but it was also a good one, made with great skill.

"you're gonna make her travel by hat?"

"OF COURSE! ANYONE CAN GO BY HORSE OR RAIL, BUT THE ABSOLUTE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL IS BY HAT. SEE, _THAT'S_ A RHYME."

Sans shrugged. "whatever you say, bro."


End file.
